PADIS \u2013 AESE’s Senior Management Program for Health Institutions <\/a>, where she later returned as a guest speaker.<\/p>\n\nHardworking, demanding and humble are his attributes, as well as the ability to see in teams the potential to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n
What are the main milestones in your professional career, which contributed to reaching the position of International Develop Markets President \u2013 Immunology & Inflammation at Pfizer?<\/strong>I believe that all the places I have occupied throughout my career have contributed to me being in this position today. However, I emphasize my place as Country Manager at Pfizer Portugal, at a time when I was Vice-President of APIFARMA, it gave me the possibility to represent Pfizer, interact with colleagues from other companies in the sector and participate in meetings with members of the government during the intervention of the Troika, I learned a lot. There are two other moments: my move to Italy where, at the time, I took over the management of Pfizer’s largest business unit in Europe and, finally, my place as VP- Chief Commercial Officer for China & Emerging markets. I discovered a new region (China, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East), new colleagues, new market dynamics, I started working on all the therapeutic areas of Pfizer and its products, in the different life cycles, from pipeline to post-Lost of Exclusivity. I was exposed to pipeline discussions and respective decisions and led business development initiatives for the region. This last position made me a leader more aware of the interconnectedness of the different global working groups of our organization and made me more efficient in managing the different matrices of the company. I became even more aware of the beauty of our colleagues’ diversity and how together we can make a difference. <\/p>\n\n
What were your main achievements?<\/strong>This year Pfizer awarded me the 2021 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA)- Luminary Award. It is an award with great projection in the United States. It is given to colleagues who are considered role models of the company’s values, for their mentoring and sponsoring actions of other colleagues, for promoting the career advancement of other colleagues and also for their contributions to the healthcare industry. Basically, for me, it was like a validation of my professional path to this day. A complete surprise that I confess made me happy.As I mentioned, it is difficult to list achievements, but I dare to highlight the transformation of our business model in Italy to a more balanced engagement mix, where digital channels have become more relevant (in 2016); the legacy of transformative high-performance teams where everyone matters; having ensured, together with the leadership team, the business continuity of China and emerging markets at a time when we were being heavily impacted by the pandemic. China was the first market to suffer from COVID-19. It was very hard days, weeks and months. There were times when I didn’t know what day of the week it was, so intense was the work of supporting patients and colleagues. There was always a very strong spirit of mission towards our patients who needed our medicines and later our vaccine and also towards our colleagues. They were difficult times (and still are) but they united us a lot, we felt that we were a big Pfizer family. <\/p>\n\n
What are the main lessons that make you the leader you are today? <\/strong>That hard, upright and honest work always bears the right fruits. Some employees have told me that I am very demanding (laughs), possibly this demand, above all for myself, has helped. I have mentioned in other interviews that one of the great learnings is that alone we cannot achieve anything, the places I occupied were never about me but about the whole. <\/p>\n\n
What values do you govern yourself by and that you transmit to your teams?<\/strong>Integrity, honesty, excellence and shared leadership, it is important to give space to others to also grow and lead. And never forget that it is important to stop and rest to move forward. We are human beings and we cannot forget that. It is important to highlight the joy at work (!), they are true elixirs of energy and unity. I love a good laugh! <\/p>\n\n
If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?<\/strong>There were a few moments early in my career when I should have distanced myself from the topic at hand. Listen carefully and do not consider different opinions as aggression. Stopping, reflecting, changing one’s opinion and\/or integrating different points of view are not signs of weakness but of wisdom. Nowadays I make a point of recognizing when I am wrong and praising those who may have a more valid point of view than mine. We have to have the humility that we do not know everything nor are we the best in everything, this is the beauty of the human being. We all have unique gifts and talents that we can put at the service of a common good. <\/p>\n\n
Professionally, how do you see yourself in 5 years?<\/strong>I don’t know, I rarely make long-term plans. Life will bring its surprises. From a personal point of view, I want to remain happy with my family, all of them in good health and that this pandemic is just a vague memory of the past. <\/p>\n\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Country Manager at Pfizer Portugal headed to Italy, where he took over the management of the largest business unit in Europe. Today Ana Paula Carvalho is International Develop Markets President \u2013 Immunology & Inflammation at the same institution. Still in Portugal, she attended PADIS \u2013 AESE’s Senior Management Program for Health Institutions , where she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8235765,"template":"","testimonial_category":[565],"class_list":["post-8235764","testimonial","type-testimonial","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonial\/8235764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonial"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/testimonial"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8235765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8235764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"testimonial_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/testimonial_category?post=8235764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}